Ministry accelerators and anchors

Ministry accelerators are practices, commitments and culture that allow some ministries (churches, missions and otherwise) to flourish, expand and see results that are far above the norm. Alternatively these very accelerators when not present become the anchors that hold us back, create a drag on forward movement and often keep us from achieving the momentum we long for. As you look at these accelerators, think about the ministry you are a part of and ask if you have an accelerator or an anchor.

Spiritual Dependence

One of the most promising and scary verses in the New Testament is found in John 15:5. “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” One ministry I work with has a guiding principle of “Intimacy before Impact.” They know that without staying close to the father, without bathing their plans and purposes in prayer, without listening to what He might be saying in return that they will never accomplish much of eternal value.

Many ministries give lip service to dependence on God but there is not much in their rhythm or strategy to back that up. After all, we can do a lot with our money, people, strategies and programs. But, if we want to have the blessing of God, if we want to know where the best strategies lie, if we want to make an eternal difference the accelerator of spiritual dependence is what we desperately need. Without Him we can do nothing of eternal value. With Him we can do amazing things!

Clear Direction

There is a connection between spiritual dependence and clear direction because through His word and through the promptings of His Holy Spirit, we are given discernment as to where God is leading our ministries. Getting to clarity of direction (rather than a typical shot gun approach to ministry) takes concerted prayer, thinking and dialogue with other key leaders. Moses was clear about his direction, as was David and Nehemiah and Daniel, Paul and Barnabas. Why? They stayed close to God, were sensitive to His leading and were therefore able to articulate to others the direction they needed to go.

Here is something to think about. Every ministry is unique. Your direction is determined by the skills, personnel, mission and unique niche that God desires you to fill. Never simply copy the direction of another ministry. That is theirs, not yours. You may learn from them but you need to ask what God is calling you to and be able to articulate it with absolute clarity.

High alignment

In the days of the judges a common observation was that “everyone did what was right in their own eyes.” Nothing dissipates energy and missional effectiveness in ministry like staff all doing their own thing in their own way toward their own good purposes.  Ministries that see significant results are those where the board, senior leader, staff and ministry teams are all on the same page and moving in the same direction. It only takes one key staff or board member to sabotage that synergy and cause an anchor that holds you back.

There are many gifted individuals who do not believe that they need to be in alignment with their leaders. They are very happy to require alignment from the team they lead but they are not committed to the same level of alignment upward. In other words, they suffer from not following well. They love to lead but resist following. No matter how gifted, these individuals will become anchors to ministry progress because they subtly and regularly undermine the power of alignment.

Healthy Boards, Personnel and teams

This goes to the issue of health. Unhealthy board members, staff and teams cannot produce healthy ministry results. Indeed, lack of health in any of these areas can be one of the heaviest anchors to pull along. Healthy individuals on the other hand get amazing things done because they are team focused, mission driven, other centered and are not building their kingdom or needing to deal with a lot of their stuff.

In the Christian world, in the name of grace, we often do not deal with unhealthy personnel. First by being honest with them and trying to help them. But if that fails by moving them out of our organization, knowing that their dishealth is hurting those around them and compromising the call of the organization. Healthy people are huge accelerators to ministry while unhealthy members are huge anchors – and it only takes one big anchor to cause a whole lot of frustration and drag.

Mission focused

All of the above are necessary for us to be mission focused – committed to reaching the mission of the organization in real, tangible ways with all hands on deck keeping the ship moving in the right direction. We have a clear mission, we are all aligned around that mission and everything we do is designed to help us achieve that mission.

Results Driven

Jesus says in John 15:5 that “If a man remains in me and I in him he will bear much fruit.” The book of Acts, was a book of spiritual fruit. The fact that the church is Christ’s bride and that not even the gates of hell will prevail against it clarifies that Jesus intends for His people to see real, tangible fruit from their ministries. We cannot control the fruit of our work but we can do those things that are likely to result in fruit as God blesses. And we ought to expect it, pray for it, work toward it and measure it.

A culture of empowerment and releasing

A key ministry accelerator is that of empowering good people in ministry and releasing them to do that ministry in line with their gifts and abilities. The more we try to control the less momentum we have. The more we truly release, the greater the momentum. As an example, in ReachGlobal, we could try to control how our churches work with our national partners. Instead we see them not as our partners but God’s partners and we willingly give away relationships between these partners and churches so that they can accomplish far more than we as a mission could. We increase our influence by giving away ministry opportunity whenever possible.

This is true in the local church as well. One of the things to consider is whether we are program centric (which depends on the church to control the program) or ministry centric (which releases the whole body to do ministry in their circles of influence). The first is often the focus because programs are tangible. The second is far more powerful because it is viral and releases the whole body to ripple on folks who will never be touched by a program.

Cooperation rather than competition

If you want to accelerate your spiritual influence, don’t go it alone! One local church may reach its community but ten local churches working toward the spread of the gospel can reach a whole county. The question here is whether we are committed to spreading our brand or His brand. I know that most churches will not choose to cooperate with churches that are not of their brand (if then) but when they do it is one of the most powerful ministry accelerators of all.

In ReachGlobal, an international mission, we decided to move from replicating our brand (EFC churches) to His Brand, (Evangelical churches whatever the name). This opened up partnerships with an amazing number of partners and movements and vastly increased the spiritual influence of ReachGlobal. It was all about cooperating with other like minded believers rather than living in our silo and competing with them.

Each of these accelerators will increase your spiritual influence. Each of them not lived out, will create an anchor and drag. Some of us need to pull up some anchors so that the wind God wants to give our sails can fill them and propel us into a fruitful season of ministry.

Pray for God's people in Egypt

The world is watching with fascination the turmoil in Egypt. As believers we need to be praying for our fellow believers in Egypt who will be impacted by whatever outcome there is. Many do not realize that there is a vibrant evangelical community in Egypt that works closely together for the evangelization of the nation. While the ministry context there is difficult – especially in evangelism of Muslims, the church exists legally and has enjoyed protections that are often absent in the Middle East.

Many Christians (evangelicals, Catholic and Coptic) fear that instability in the nation could give the Muslim Brotherhood the opportunity to seize power and move the nation toward an Islamic state. If that were to happen, the Christian community in Egypt would come under severe pressure, lose the protections it has enjoyed and face significant persecution. In addition, instability gives radical Muslims the opportunity to persecute believers with impunity.

Here is something to think about. The west, particularly the United States, has made “democracy” one of its highest goals for nations around the world. The problem with that goal is that in many places in our world, the majority does not protect the rights of the minority. For instance, India is the world’s largest democracy but the rights of believers are often violated. Ironically, under Saddam, the church was protected in Iraq. Under the current “democracy” believers have been killed, churches closed and believers by the tens of thousands driven out of the country.

The Apostle Paul encouraged us to pray for peace and stability so that the church could flourish. We don’t know what will happen in Egypt but we do know that we have a responsibility to pray for our brothers and sisters there and for a context where the church can have an impact on society.

One of my Christian friends in Egypt wrote this yesterday. “All in all we are strengthened and encouraged by the Lord and we know that He is in control of it all and nothing passes His eyesight. We believe the future of Egypt is being shaped and molded for a nationwide movement for the spread of the Gospel.”

The events of history are not as random as they often appear. Paul indicated this in Acts 17:26-27 where he says that God uses all the events of our world to build His church and bring people to Himself. Let’s pray that His purposes for the church in Egypt will be fulfilled at this time in their history.

Building Cultures of Expectation

Good leaders are people of hope and optimism: they are evangelists of hope to those they lead. In addition, they are always intentional in helping develop cultures of expectation within their team or organization for what God desires to do in and through them. 


Many in ministry have little expectation for what God is going to do in and through them. All you need to do is to listen to them pray: small prayers for small things - without passion and without belief that God will actually show up. Contrast that with those who pray for big things, expect big things and plan for big things.


Jesus himself told us to expect big things: "If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples (John 15:7-8). Even more stunning is the statement to His disciples, "I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name and I will do it" (John 14:12-14).


Not once in any of his Epistles was Paul pessimistic about what God was up to. His words are those of amazing expectation of what God was up to. "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen (Ephesians 3:20-21)." I cannot read that without shivers going down my spine!


Because we live in a world full of problems and challenges, most people focus not on what God is up to but all the issues they face. Leaders are those who lift the eyes of others to our powerful Lord and remind them that God is always at work in amazing ways and that He wants to work through us.


Leaders encourage their people to be in the Scriptures regularly because focusing on Him and His word helps us to think like Him and to start claiming His amazing promises. Leaders encourage times of individual and corporate prayer focusing on the goodness, greatness and plans of God for our world. Prayer is time exposure to Jesus and we don't leave unchanged. Leaders also encourage their people to develop prayer teams who are together claiming God's promises for our work. I am privileged to have hundreds of people praying for me at any given time.


Finally, leaders lift up the purpose, power, passion and resolve of our Lord to reach this planet for Him on a constant business. God is always up to something wonderful. He is always providing fruit to those who seek his help. He is always working in improbable ways through improbable situations and improbable people. He is, after all the One whose glory will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea and the one before whom every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.


Leaders of ministries are the purveyors of the very hope that God lays out for us in Scripture and that Jesus demonstrated in the Gospels. They lift up the big and loving and powerful and "at work" God and call their people to join him in His amazing work. They build cultures of expectation that God is going to use our efforts in significant ways for His kingdom purposes. How are you doing as a purveyor of hope and one who is building a culture of expectation?

Dialing down the Noise

Our lives are full of noise! Distractions, diversions, hectic schedules, ubiquitous emails and text messages that chase us across the city or the globe, twenty four hour news, and beckoning computer screens that allow us to have dozens of multiple pages open, clicks to click and options to explore as the news scrolls across the bottom and music plays in the background. Our lives are full of noise.

Think of noise as everything that distracts from quiet contemplation, deep thinking, and quiet time with God. If your life is like mine, the cacophony of distractions often drives out what our soul often craves. The simplicity of quiet solitude with God where away from the distractions, we can think, pray, meditate and just "be" with Him.

Our distractions - schedules and technology - are often our greatest challenges. I confess to loving technology but I recognize that I can often be a slave to its noise and constant 24 hour ability to find and distract me anywhere I am on the globe. I also confess to running very hard, cramming all that I can into my days leaving too little margin at times. Noise!

I am learning to unplug and disengage more often for the sake of my soul knowing that the distractions also distract my attention from the One whom I serve and always need to spend time with. Theophan the Recluse wrote: "When remembrance of God lives in the heart and there maintains the fear of Him, then all goes well; but when this remembrance grows weak or is kept only in the head, then all goes astray." Distractions cause remembrance to grow weak. We are only as connected to Christ as the last time we spent time with Him.

As a youngster I knew my father rose at about 4:30 to spend time with God before going to work early as a physician and surgeon. I could not understand that early morning ritual. Today I do for it is in the quiet of the early morning that I find quietness, solitude, and time to reflect on my life in light of God's word. In the monastic tradition - one passed down to the Catholic, Anglican and Episcopalian church, this is often called "The Daily Office." Regular times of prayer, Scripture reading and contemplation. It is the discipline of taking time away from noise and distractions that will often chase us the rest of the day to be with Jesus.

As one who embraces technology easily I am experimenting with weekends and other periods where it is turned off. I am finding more joy in times of solitude, extended reading and technology free hours. When I do, my mind slows down, allowing it to wander down winding alleyways of thought that distracted thinking does not allow. One wonders if the Psalms would have been written if David had a cell phone and computer. The reflections of the sages we read, ancient and modern on following Christ were born out of deep thinking and long times with God and His word.

By wiring I love the challenge of what I do in life and leadership. I also realize that the drive that often thrives on noise and the adrenalin it produces causes my soul to grow weary and shallow when not nurtured by the solitude and silence of undistracted time with God. When one first dials the noise down it feels unnatural because we are so used to jumping on every text, every email and distraction. Indeed we have become the distracted generation. But practiced regularly, a daily office, if you will, away from the distractions and  noise nourishes the soul in ways nothing else can. And in the end, feeding our soul is far more important than answering the beckoning email.

Intimacy before Impact

One of the ministries I have a long term relationship with, Life International, has one of the most unique but important guiding principles of any ministry I know: Intimacy before Impact!

Life International is a global "life" ministry dealing with issues of "life" wherever abortion exists around the world. It is a holistic ministry helping pastors train their congregations in abstinence outside of marriage, in healthy relationships between men and women and ministering to those with unwanted pregnancies.

But they know that their best strategies are worthless unless they have the power of the Holy Spirit ever present in their lives. They believe what Jesus said in John 15 about the importance of "abiding in me." So, built into their DNA and into their ministry lives and day is a culture of worship of God and paying close attention to their spiritual connection.

There is one phrase of Jesus in John 15 that always causes me pause: "Without me you can do nothing." All of us need to pay attention to those six words. We expend great energy in the cause of our ministries but in the end - without the empowerment of His Spirit and the connection of "remaining" we cannot accomplish anything of eternal value. But, "Ask anything of me and I will give it for it is to my father's glory that you bear much fruit."

A guiding principle to live by today and every day.

Bold and Bolder Faith

In Luke 11, Jesus taught his disciples how to pray with the Lord’s prayer. If you read that prayer it is a bold prayer with bold requests. But then Jesus goes on to expand his teaching on prayer:

“Then he said to them, Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.

Then the one inside answers, Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything. I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man’s boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs.

So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:5-13)

Jesus is inviting us to be bold in our requests! He is inviting us to make BIG asks. He is affirming that when we pray God hears and doors open. He is making the point that just as we would not be stingy with responding to the requests of our own children that he would never be stingy with us His children.

Here is why I think so many people were profoundly impacted by the story of my illness. We often pray, not believing that God would actually do something BIG, or that we could make truly bold requests. That God can and does the miraculous in our day. But He did, and they saw it and it changed their understanding of prayer, faith, and God’s ability to do BIG things.

Because Mary Ann had heard from God early on that “it will be close but He will make it,” she would not let anyone into my ICU room to pray for me who would not pray for an absolute miracle and total healing. That was a bold move because there was no medical indication that I would pull through. Or, realistic hope.

If Jesus invites bold faith, if He invites BIG asks, we ought to take Him up on His offer. What is it that you need today? Be bold, pray BIG and wait for a loving father to answer!

It can be hard to be bold in our prayer or to do BIG asks if we are not used to doing this. There is another hard part of prayer. We are to pray bold and pray BIG but we are also to pray for God’s will to be done (Matthew 6:10). That is hard because while God always answers the prayer of faith (Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you – Luke 11:9-10) His perfect answer is not always our perfect answer!

God chose to heal me – twice - in His sovereignty. He does not always do that. That does not mitigate bold and BIG prayer. It requires that we understand that God’s perfect will is sometimes unseen by us. Even Jesus, on the eve of His arrest and death, prayed “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done. An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground” (Luke 22:42-44).

Let that sink in. Jesus was in agony over what was before Him. He pled with his Father to remove the cup of suffering from Him but even as He prayed boldly and with a BIG ask, in the same breath he said “yet not my will but yours be done.” Did God show up? Yes, an angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened Him. Did God remove the path of suffering from Him. No!

A pastor friend of mine was exhilarated when God chose to heal me. He and his congregation had prayed hard, earnestly, boldly and BIG. He was devastated a few months later when God did not heal a young boy in his church who experienced a devastating accident at a youth retreat. This is a man of great faith and has been a model of prayer for me through the years. He was as devastated by God’s seeming lack of action as he was in God’s miraculous action in my life.

Reflecting on that event recently he said, “It is amazing how powerful prayer is when we pray in line with God’s will.” Ultimately, life is not about us but about God. Ultimately, God’s purposes are far greater than we can ever comprehend this side of heaven. If Jesus was bound by His Father’s will and willing to submit to that will, why would we, his followers and children, be exempt?

In this regard, one of the most misused verses in Scripture is Romans 8:28. “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purposes.”

Many assume that means that only good things happen to God’s people. Yet just a few verses later Paul asks “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. No in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Romans 8:35-37).

Far from denying the reality of bad things, Paul says expect them. But know that even in the worst, nothing can separate us from God’s love. In that context we have to take Romans 8:28 that “in all things God works for the good of those who love him” from God’s perspective not ours. It is not a promise that life will not include pain. It is rather a promise that when it does, God has a purpose and a plan that is still good and perfect and that he can use even our pain for His greater purposes.

God does not always remove suffering from our lives – and He did not for Jesus but He does redeem that suffering for greater divine purposes. Bold prayer, prayer that storms the gates of heaven is unapologetic in its requests and BIG in its scope. But it is not bold without praying for God’s ultimate will to be done. That is the boldest prayer because that prayer invites God to do what is ultimately best from His perspective, not ours. It is like the prayer of Jesus in the garden a prayer of deep submission to His perfect will and an invitation to Him to use our lives for His deepest and greatest purposes. That is BOLD prayer. And BOLD faith.

Are you willing to pray boldly for His will to be done? Do you trust His goodness enough to pray that way? I want to invite you to take that step of ultimate faith and trust right now. Tell Him your need, pray BIG, pray boldly, and boldly invite Him to do His will in your life and situation.

Parched: When God Seems Absent

I spoke recently with a friend who was suffering from a long dry spell in his relationship with God. Used to a high degree of intimacy and relationship with Christ, it now seemed that God had gone silent. Silence from heaven can be deeply discouraging. We ask, why? Is it me? Is it God? Why the silence.

When I lay for two week in the intensive care in Thailand this past January I felt much the same thing. There was no wonderful warm feeling of God's presence and I was lying awake on a vent, feeding tube, multiple lines into various parts of my body thinking I might not make it through.

And I had a lot of time to think since I could not sleep and was not put into a coma. I hung onto the words of Jesus in Matthew 14 to the disciples in the account where Jesus walked on water.

"Take courage! It is I, Don't be afraid." - Jesus

"Lord, save me!" - Peter

"You of little faith," he said, "Why did you doubt?" - Jesus

I remembered that "Fear not" is the most repeated command in Scripture. I remembered how often Jesus said, "I am with you." A command and a statement that I knew to be true, even though emotionally I did not feel it to be true.

And I thought through the connection between faith and doubt. Faith is not based on emotion or some warm feeling on intimacy - nice as that is. As the writer of Hebrews writes, "Now faith is being certain of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see (or feel?). This is what the ancients were commended for." Hebrews 11:1-2.

I concluded laying in that bed, being kept alive by a machine that could breath for me, enduring the pain of the regular cleaning of the vent where they vacuumed deep into my bronchial cavity, that my job was to believe all that I knew to be true and banish the doubt that crept in.

Faith is developed when we have to exercise it and we exercise it the most in times of drought, when all is not well, when God seems silent, when we are hurting, or scared, or at the end of our wits.

Interestingly, the one time that I felt the Lord's presence strongly was when others came to pray for me. At those moments I knew that God was there, even though he was largely silent to me. In times of drought, find others who will pray with you and for you.

Being at the end of ourselves is a wonderful place to be because all that is left is God - and in the end God is all that we really need.

There is a Psalm that says it well. "Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage." Pilgrimage is not easy. It takes us through deserts and to the oasis. The oasis is easy and the desert is hard. But it is in the desert that we choose to exercise our faith and it is there that our faith is proved and grows.

God is never absent. We may think him absent. In reality he is doing us a favor but helping us build our faith. And Jesus says in those times "Take courage it is I, Don't be afraid."

Ministry and Spiritual Warfare

Our world is a battle zone between the forces of God and the forces of the evil one who is committed to disrupting and destroying everything that God wants to do to repair a broken world and bring His good news to lost men and women. The problem is that the battle is unseen. We see its effects and feel its reality but we are easily lulled into thinking that if we simply do the right thing that people will respond to the gospel.

There is no more seminal passage on this than that of Paul’s in Ephesians 6.

”Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.”

Paul truly believed that a battle is being fought in the heavenly realms and that the truth of the word, the transformation of salvation and the practice of prayer are both the defensive and offensive weapons of the believer. He constantly asked for prayer for his own ministry as he does in verse 19, knowing that prayer was the key to engaging the help of God’s Spirit.

If there is a front line to God’s work it is the ministry of missions where there is a concerted effort to reclaim territory from the enemy. As in any battle, the more aggressive the effort, the more aggressive the response. The enemy holds billions of our world’s population captive to false religions, materialism and personal satisfaction. And the enemy has no intention of giving up any substantial ground to Christ.

There is a reason that Islam so militantly hates Christianity and will do anything in its power to stop it: It is enemy territory and its people are held captive by Satan. There is a reason that radical Hinduism will go as far as to kill believers: it is enemy territory that the evil one believes belongs to him. There is a reason that so many in our world are held captive in animism and fear of the spirits. It is the enemy’s way of keeping billions from looking to Christ.

There is a reason that Western Europe is so hard to the gospel. The enemy has used materialism and humanism as false but alternative routes to truth. There is a reason that many Buddhists are resistant to the gospel: the enemy has convinced them that there are many possible routes to truth and God. As Paul said, “Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light" (2 Corinthians 11:14). The account of Paul’s missionary journeys in the book of Acts were a constant battle between the truth of the gospel and the resistance of Satan.

We will never know until eternity the full extent of the unseen all out war that is taking place around us but blind to us apart from seeing the effects. The prophets Daniel and Ezekiel, however give us glimpses of that spiritual war and the New Testament proclaims it’s reality.

Paul, the greatest New Testament figure in the spread of the Gospel and the first major missionary constantly spoke of the need for prayer in his ministry and the proclamation of the gospel. He knew that he was treading on enemy soil and that offensive and defensive weapons were needed to see success.

It is highly significant that the inauguration of Christ’s ministry was marked by two distinct events. The first event was the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist. As soon as Jesus was baptized “heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased (Matthew 3:16-17).’”

That testimony from heaven itself was the enemy’s deepest fear and the realization that this, finally, was the One who would crush him (Genesis 3:15), who would bless the nations through Him (Genesis 12:1-3), who would suffer and rise again (Isaiah 53), who would overcome the evil one and reign triumphant (Daniel 9-12), the one whom he had tried to eliminate through Herod’s killing of the children at Christ’s birth.

His adversary from the days of the garden had finally arrived in person on his soil and the battle lines were drawn. For He came with a proclamation of an eternal and holy Kingdom that would encroach on the enemy’s territory.

And the enemy knew it - for the second event of the inauguration of Christ’s ministry was a direct attempt by Satan to subvert his calling in the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. Here was an amazing scene: the God of the universe in personal confrontation with the devil himself. Finally, the devil had the opportunity to personally confront and tempt the One who he had feared since the fall, and with the rebuke of Christ, would continue to fight a losing but bruising battle until the final battle when heaven rules supreme.

The temptation of Christ serves as a lesson to us. If the devil had the audacity to challenge the God of the universe, what will keep him from challenging and confronting us as we seek to take back what rightfully belongs to God and to turn the hearts of people from captivity and bondage and sin to freedom and grace and righteousness! At every level he will challenge the gospel and the greater the threat, the greater the pushback.

That is why the spread of the gospel is often accompanied by the blood of the saints. In 1 Corinthians 16:9 Paul connects the great open door he has in Ephesus with many who oppose him. Great opportunity usually comes with great opposition.

It is foolish and naïve for us to think that we can engage in this front line battle without the greatest spiritual protection that we can possibly gather. The most important thing we can do is to ensure that we have the offensive and defensive weapons that Paul speaks of in Ephesians 6, recognizing the reality of the battle and our deep need for spiritual resources to fight what is a spiritual war.

My family experienced that first hand in my hospitalization between December 4, 2007 and January 14, 2008. For thirty five days I lay in the ICU hovering between life and death. When my son put up a blog to keep people informed and call them to prayer, some 10,000 unique users accessed that blog from 50 states and 75 countries – earnestly interceding on my behalf.

The common understanding among them was that this was an intense spiritual battle. I lay helpless, in a coma, with at least five medical conditions that should have killed me, yet with the intercession of many, none of them did and the mitral valve in my heart was healed miraculously when doctors said only surgery could repair it but surgery would have been fatal. For some reason this spiritual battle was intense and it took thousands of prayer warriors over the course of a month to overcome the arrows of the evil one.

Spiritual warfare is real. To engage in missions without significant attention to the need for spiritual protection and the offensive work of the Spirit is like walking into the battle of the Bulge without a weapon or a helmet or a platoon: dangerous, foolish and in the end fruitless.

Hearing God's Voice

Something we pay far to little attention to in my view is that of intentionally listening for the voice of God in our lives. My guess is that anyone who has followed Christ for any period of time can think of instances where God clearly spoke to them about a life issue.

God speaks through his word, through circumstances, and through others. But God often speaks to us personally as well - if we will listen, and understand ourselves well enough to know how he usually communicates with us.

When I was in the hospital a year and a half ago, hovering between life and death for long weeks, God clearly told my wife, "It will be close but T.J. will live." That promise was one she clung onto for the 35 days I was in the Intensive Care Unit moving from one crisis to another. This past January when I was in a similar situation in Thailand, God again spoke to her.

For most of us, those kinds of instances are rare. The question is, how does God speak to us and how can we sensitize our lives to his voice?

God normally speaks to me when I am quiet and thinking, or writing. Not with words like he did with Mary Ann but clear impressions or ideas that he drops in my mind. For Mary Ann it is normally when she is quiet with God doing her Scripture study. For a friend of mine who works with AIDS kids and women in Thailand God often speaks to her through the interactions she has with those she cares for.

I have another friend who sees pictures when he prays for people in "prophetic prayer" and God uses those pictures to encourage those he is praying for. For others it is a God given impression or prompting to do something that does not go away.

God speaks to each of us in unique ways just as he created us as unique individuals. The challenge is to recognize how he usually communicates with us and then ensure that we are tuned in to his voice. Since God normally speaks to me in times of thinking and solitude, I know that when I am over busy and tired that I may not hear him. My challenge is to orient my life so that I can hear if he wants to communicate.

I do believe that we underestimate the desire that God has to communicate to us regarding issues in our lives. Because of our busyness and the general media clutter that incessantly assaults our minds it takes intentionality to hear him. I for one want to hear his voice when he chooses to speak.

God still Heals

One year ago I spent 32 days in the Intensive Care Unit and 42 days in the hospital, 18 days of which were in an induced coma on a ventilator. I came into the hospital with MRSA pneumonia which led to many complications: acute respritory distress syndrome, congestive heart failure, a torn mitral valve in the heart, fevers of 103.8, a heart rate of 240 and septic shock. By all human reasoning I should not have survived.

But: God raised up an army of people praying from around the world and God did the impossible, even healing the failed mitral valve after a day of intense prayer and fasting. To this day my doctors cannot get their hands around my healing. They know there was outside intervention.

I have learned many lessons from my hospital stay. I have learned to pray boldly knowing that God can do the impossible. I have learned that every day is an undeserved gift of grace to be used for his purposes. I have learned that life can change almost instantly so I don't want to squander the time God has given. I have learned of God's great goodness, mercy and love.

Shortly after leaving the hospital I wrote these words in my journal. More than ever I am aware that every day is an undeserved gift from God. That I owe him my life and that He has graciously granted me additional life to server Him. I don't deserve it but that is the nature of grace.

I am reminded of that grace every single morning. And I thank Him for it. God is good - all the time.

The wounds of ministry

Ministry is deeply painful at times. For those in full time ministry as well as for those who serve in leadership positions as volunteers. Any board member who has had to walk through difficult times in a local church knows. Every pastor bears scars, some that feel raw for years. Missionaries know the pain of cross cultural misunderstandings (as well as nationals working with missionaries) or even conflict on their own teams. At 52, I bear numerous scars from 27 years of full time ministry.

The pain experienced in ministry is often different than other pain. After all we do what we do for God, not ourselves, which makes the pain feel unfair. Further, believers can be even more unkind than unbelievers. How we treat one another is often unconscionable. But, too often the stakes are high so we put a stake in the ground and in our conviction, take the arrows or missiles of others.

How we deal with the pain of the past has a direct influence on our ministry in the present. It can either help and inform our present and future ministry or it can cause us to withdraw, live with bitterness, bring cynicism or cause us to approach relationships with distrust. How we deal with past pain matters to us today.

Here are some principles I have learned in dealing with the wounds of ministry.

First, treat your past wounds as what you see in your rear view mirror. We glance at the rear view mirror as we drive but we focus on what is in front of us. If you drive with your eyes on the rear view mirror you will crash. The same is true if we focus on our past wounds - we will crash.

Paul had as many or more wounds than any of us will ever have. Yet he was able to say, "Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:13-14). His eyes were on the future, not the past.

Second, learn from the past. Pain is one of the greatest teachers. It teaches us to persevere. It teaches us how to deal with people. It forces us to examine our own motives. There is no question that our most significant growth comes through pain. So treat it as an unwelcome blessing that we can learn from.

Paul writes in Philippians 3:16, right after the above reference, "Only let us live up to what we have already attained." Live out, he says what we have learned. Live up to the growth we have experienced. Rather than seeing pain as our enemy, see it as a friend, learn from it but keep your eyes on the present, not on the past.

Third, remember that we do not ultimately serve men but our Father. People will always let us down (as we will let others down). People will take shots. People will be unkind at times and life isn't fair - especially in ministry.

Again, Paul, through his experience gives great perspective. "I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me (1 Corinthians 4:3-4)."

His point is that we worry too much about what others think of us when what should concern us is what God thinks. Not everyone will like us. Join the ministry club of Jesus, Paul, the apostles and everyone who serves in ministry. We often carry around the burden of knowing that there are those who not only don't like us but speak against us and some who actually try to do us harm.

But Paul reminds us that it is not about us, but about the call of God on our lives. Don't carry the burden. Let it go and remember that we ultimately answer to an audience of One.

Finally, where we have wounded those who have wounded us - it often happens in conflict, do what you can to make it right. You cannot control the response of others, but you can seek to make right relationships that are broken. Again, Paul tells us to live at peace with all men as far as we are able.

If we can gain Paul's perspective, pain becomes a friend that molds us, grows us and matures us. But we focus on the present and future, not on the wounds of the past. Keep those in the rear-view mirror.

It is not about trying to forget pain. It is about keeping our wounds in proper perspective.